Lighting the life of the Children: celebrating diwali this way
why not contribute what you wish to spend on crackers to social causes which make not just your life more meaningful but also that of others. Let me share how.
If you find a cobra snake injured, what will you do? You might feel scared, kill it or run away. But there is another choice and that is to heal it, stitch its wounds and release him after he recovers into the jungle. Lighting the life of the Children: celebrating diwali this way why not contribute what you wish to spend on crackers to social causes which make not just your life more meaningful but also that of others. Let me share how. If you find a cobra snake injured, what will you do? You might feel scared, kill it or run away. But there is another choice and that is to heal it, stitch its wounds and release him after he recovers into the jungle. Thats what Mansukhbhai Harji Bhai Panara, a teacher in Keshod, Gujarat did( see picture). And that’s not the only thing he does. He takes his students to sanctuary, organizes camps even of Muslim girls (who were seldom sent out), makes children wear lion masks and takes rallies out. Children shout, save me!, save me!, surely at least they will never be poachers or hurt lions ever. As if that is not enough, he asks children to bring old waste boxes from home, teaches them how to convert those into a nest. Children then have to keep these nests in a safe place at their home and observe how many eggs were laid by a bird there, how did the eggs hatch, in how many days, and when did the chicks fly away. Singing songs given in the school books is not easy because they have often not been set to a proper tune or raga. Taslima Salim, Junagadh, took sixty songs in new text books up to class eights and set them to different tunes/ragas on English, Sanskrit, Gujarati, (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9zZTgF9OzA, also see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4oEHmLvpPXk) for children to sing them properly. her channel on youtube has seventy songs for free download. I wish every teacher in schools all over the country creates open source content for democratization of education with excellence. IIMA and SRISTI will be happy to honour such creators of open source multi media, multi language content. It is not for nothing that Taslima ben will be felicitated along with nine other creative teachers by Dr A P J Abdul Kalam on 19th before NIF’s Ignite function at IIMA. Dr Kalam will also meet creative technology students awarded by SRISTI’s Techepdia.in, innovative school teachers scouted through DIETs (District Institute Of Education and Training Institute, Junagadh) and encouraged by Chetan Patel and Prof Vijay Sherry Chand. He will interact with the IIMA students who have come out with creative public policy ideas for transforming India through GRIIT course, honour 35 creative children innovators as a part of annual Ignite competition for children ideas ( nifindia.org/ignite). When the state of Gujarat and the whole country is suffering form a serious problem of malnutrition among children, Dilipbhai C Bhalgamiya and his colleague teachers in Botad, Bhavnagar have shown a new way. The medical test by state government had shown serious extent of inadequacy of iron in this girls school. Pulse ingestion was suggested as a way of overcoming the problem. Teachers asked children to bring a handful of pulse from their hands. They also brought the same from their home. This pooled pulse was sprouted and fed to students in addition to mid day meal. The enthusiasm of student increased, their participation in various activities also increased. And the attendance showed significant improvement all by the contribution of handful of pulses by parents for their children. why dont we resolve on diwali that such self -help ideas will be replicated like a virus without any delay so that our children become healthy, happy and more curious and concerned about society. Social innovation fund needs to expand to support thousand of such ideas. Let us give a thought that lighting our house is easy, but lighting our life in such a way that illumination reaches others who need it is the real celebration of this festival. May i wish you all a lot of light in your life… what Mansukhbhai Harji Bhai Panara, a teacher in Keshod, Gujarat did( see picture). And that’s not the only thing he does. He takes his students to sanctuary, organizes camps even of Muslim girls (who were seldom sent out), makes children wear lion masks and takes rallies out. Children shout, save me!, save me!, surely at least they will never be poachers or hurt lions ever. As if that is not enough, he asks children to bring old waste boxes from home, teaches them how to convert those into a nest. Children then have to keep these nests in a safe place at their home and observe how many eggs were laid by a bird there, how did the eggs hatch, in how many days, and when did the chicks fly away.
Singing songs given in the school books is not easy because they have often not been set to a proper tune or raga. Taslima Salim, Junagadh, took sixty songs in new text books up to class eights and set them to different tunes/ragas on English, Sanskrit, Gujarati, (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9zZTgF9OzA, also see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4oEHmLvpPXk) for children to sing them properly. her channel on youtube has seventy songs for free download. I wish every teacher in schools all over the country creates open source content for democratization of education with excellence. IIMA and SRISTI will be happy to honour such creators of open source multi media, multi language content.
It is not for nothing that Taslima ben will be felicitated along with nine other creative teachers by Dr A P J Abdul Kalam on 19th before NIF’s Ignite function at IIMA. Dr Kalam will also meet creative technology students awarded by SRISTI’s Techepdia.in, innovative school teachers scouted through DIETs (District Institute Of Education and Training Institute, Junagadh) and encouraged by Chetan Patel and Prof Vijay Sherry Chand. He will interact with the IIMA students who have come out with creative public policy ideas for transforming India through GRIIT course, honour 35 creative children innovators as a part of annual Ignite competition for children ideas ( nifindia.org/ignite).
When the state of Gujarat and the whole country is suffering form a serious problem of malnutrition among children, Dilipbhai C Bhalgamiya and his colleague teachers in Botad, Bhavnagar have shown a new way. The medical test by state government had shown serious extent of inadequacy of iron in this girls school. Pulse ingestion was suggested as a way of overcoming the problem. Teachers asked children to bring a handful of pulse from their hands. They also brought the same from their home. This pooled pulse was sprouted and fed to students in addition to mid day meal. The enthusiasm of student increased, their participation in various activities also increased. And the attendance showed significant improvement all by the contribution of handful of pulses by parents for their children. why dont we resolve on diwali that such self -help ideas will be replicated like a virus without any delay so that our children become healthy, happy and more curious and concerned about society. Social innovation fund needs to expand to support thousand of such ideas. Let us give a thought that lighting our house is easy, but lighting our life in such a way that illumination reaches others who need it is the real celebration of this festival. May i wish you all a lot of light in your life…
